


Are Heading Home Again

by zarabithia



Category: Captain America (2011), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Community: love bingo, Crossover, Established Relationship, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-03
Updated: 2012-07-03
Packaged: 2017-11-09 02:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/450139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Kaldur have both won the battles they set out to fight. The price of their victories are nightmares that neither should feel guilty for, even though they do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Are Heading Home Again

Kaldur knows that Steve feels guilty about the nightmares. Kaldur knows this because although Steve has two different types of nightmares, both cause Kaldur and Steve to wake up.

Sometimes, the nightmares cause Steve to awake with a start, his army shirt soaked through with sweat and his throat sore from shouting names of people that Kaldur has only come to know through Steve's nightly remembrances. During those nights, Steve's fingers dig into the bedding, sheets and Kaldur's skin, and despite Kaldur's enhanced physiology, Steve's fights against battles long since past leave their mark.

On those nights, Steve's fingers brush against Kaldur's skin as gently as kelp, his earlier panic easily forgotten.

"I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you," Steve says and Kaldur claims his lips to keep further apologies from spilling forth.

The kiss sometimes leads to many mutually pleasant things, and sometimes does not, but it does always end with Steve wrapped around Kaldur. The holding serves both as an apology for the accidental bruises and for the all the actions that Kaldur has never personally witnessed. 

Other nights, Steve doesn't wake up screaming at all. On those nights, the only indications that Steve's sleep has been interrupted are quiet, desperate gasps of breath. 

Kaldur is not a Kryptonian, nor is he a Martian, but although the sheets they lie on are birthday presents from the richest of Steve's friends, they make little difference to Kaldur. His time on the surface has never dulled his skin's sensitivity to the subtle shift in the blankets as Steve changes positions and tries to make the voices stop.

"I didn't mean to wake you," Steve whispers, always, and always too, Steve offers no struggle as Kaldur slips his fingers through Steve's and pulls him closer within the expensive sheets that still feel like sandpaper on Kaldur's nude legs. 

On these nights, it is Kaldur who holds Steve close, and there are no apologies given. Instead, there are silent promises that Kaldur is not going anywhere. Steve's breath slowly evens out, and he eventually goes back to sleep within Kaldur's arms.

Those are not the nights of phantom battles. Those are the nights of phantom kisses and ghostly promises, from people whose faces fill all the sketchbooks lining the top of Steve's closet. 

In many ways, these are far worse than the nights that Steve wakes up screaming. 

Regardless of the type of nightmare that Steve has, the guilt washes over Steve's features like waves crashing onto a beach. Guilt for the bruises, guilt for allowing the past to interrupt the present, guilt for interrupting Kaldur's sleep - Kaldur can list every reason that Steve has.

He can do so, because on some nights, Kaldur dreams of the Kroloteans.

On other nights, Kaldur dreams of Roy's warm lips and Tula's bright smile.

Steve isn't the only one with nightmares, and fortunately for Kaldur, Steve isn't the only one who can find comfort in his lover's embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Steve's birthday week! Countlessuntruths asked for Steve/Kaldur. This also fulfills the "My Heart Will Move On" square for love_bingo. Title source comes from [this poem.](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/24015)


End file.
